There is something fascinatingly close to perfection about un-conducted orchestra 12 Ensemble. What compels about them is not an intellectual notion of musical freedom through innovation, but the very direct taste of it in the room.

Just as with the silences between the notes, so the lack of a conductor proved to be no lack at all but a lynch-pin, the quiet space around which vibrance, motion and the presence of the music was able to complete its circle in this transporting Ensemble. They collectively rejoiced in this magnificent performance of Recomposed by Max Richter, and we as an audience rejoiced with them.

Hesitatingly, letting inner conductor rest and heading for free flow, let us try to voice a little of the experience. Perched on cushioned seats above the incredible floor of the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford, we were privileged to participate in an intimate glance,a shared breath with the movements of this amazing ensemble, the incredible double bass, cello, viola, violin, harp and harpsichord present in this night's unique ensemble of twenty-one profoundly skilled and creative musicians.

With Eloisa-Fleur Thom in divine form leading on violin, and the power and determination of musicians such as cellist Max Ruisi, we stepped into a tableau of human energy which drove our space high into a sort of ecstatic orbit.

Those glances, the direct lines of sight between musicians, the rise and fall of rhythms between these immaculate artists finding their way in real time though this iridescent field of beauty, was an unfolding rare to behold. That enraptured silence between movements in a classical performance never seemed more appropriate to me than in tonight's performance, as the room held its collective breath over the beauty within earshot.

Eloisa-Fleur Thom with her long auburn curls falling waistward and her posture of exquisite repose, leading with beatific stance, took us travelling to the stars... all the while she struck me as leading the dreaming, even when she was not playing. As she stood, oft with eyes closed surrendering to the music, she seemed elevated; composed, lucid, and yet free, in a trance of motion swaying, in a light, yet a deeply focused dream.

She seemed a demi-goddess from another realm, a mermaid, rising from depths of concentration to break the water's surface, swaying, she would compose herself through the presence of the sound itself, then seizing lightly a single moment, miraculously lift her violin, break into open air, take off and soar.

The bass players stood like stauch giants, guardians of this amphitheatre where they guided the music of this intricate and complete ensemble with their deep and steady protective thrumming.

The shining red and coloured harp strings plucked within their golden frame against the cool light blue background of the Sheldonian. The cellists’ powerful abandon. The voices of those numerous immaculate strings singing together.

The moments between things were the most transporting. The hypnotic pace of the electrically skeletal harpsichord solo leading the way into Autumn's second movement, that wonderful piece's organic slow to a still.

The sequence like light ice crystals stretched out into the air in a slow melt of sounds that starts the infinitesimal siren call of Summer's second movement.

That famous, incredible rising fall of Spring's first movements, and the deep vibrational fervour which so shook these musicians with passion in the third movement of Summer. The stringent insistence of the first of Winter's movements, and the epic salute of the last.

Watching these musicians' faces, their communication as a whole, their glances to one another, their sheer commitment to the music and this moment. Watching their hands as they danced upon their instruments. This was a truly intimate moment to share with such brilliant virtuosity.

A wonderful match too between the natural themes of this music and the organic, freely moving motion of this ensemble’s mutual coherence and connection, played out in its patterning before us.

These musicians spun for us tonight a beautiful fullness, filled with the presence of this remarkable music and they did it by dint of their incredible talents and their connection to one another. But also by their sheer and clear, compelling surrender and commitment to the music itself.

This is what brought us into the present, accompanying them in a spiral upwards, as they guided us through a musical fractal. This is what brought tears, goosebumps, a thrill of awareness and alertness, a pull to applaud during those brilliant edges of awed silence between movements, a riotous gratitude we managed to contain, pulling us forward to the edges of our seats, until it broke like a wave on the shore of this scintillating performance as it came in to land.

We returned, eventually, too soon, reluctantly, with stars in our eyes, to the mundane quotidien realities of the lamp lit streets outside, with gratitude for beauty witnessed.

- Lorena Nessi and Luke Haward